Of Bees, Mice and Terrorists

Sometimes when you read the news stark reality hits you hard between the eyes and you see before you the basic live or die truth about man - the fact that he possesses the choice between good and evil. While some people on this earth choose to blow themselves and other innocent bystanders up in a grasp for the unreal world of the "afterlife", others choose to study the world around them - the real world of the here and now and to make life better for man.

Two very interesting scientific breakthroughs were announced on October 25: the unraveling of the Honey Bee and mice genomes. A research group supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute announced that the western honey bee's genome was more similar to humans than any insect sequenced thus far(Read), while other researchers announced that they now have the DNA sequences of 15 mouse strains most commonly used in biomedical research (read).

"The honey bee's social behavior makes it an important model for understanding how genes regulate behavior through the development of the brain and central nervous system. That may lead to important insights into common mental and brain disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, the bee genome may also provide an important window into immunity and aging."

" 'Comparing the genome of the honey bee with other species separated over evolutionary time from humans has provided us with powerful insights into the complex biological processes that have evolved over hundreds of millions of years,' said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. 'The genome of the honey bee has been added to a growing list of organisms whose sequence can be compared side by side to better understand the structure and functions of our own genes. And that will help speed our understanding of how genes contribute to health and what goes wrong in illness.' "

"After assembly of the genome at the BCM-HGSC, the center led an analysis team of more than 170 investigators representing nearly 100 research groups from 16 countries."

When your focus is on using reason and objectivity for discovery and advancing the frontiers of knowledge then you cooperate with people from all over the world and use proof as your argument. When your focus is religion and mysticism to attain a "better" after-life then you destroy, terrorise, maim and subjugate in order to force people into accepting your view.

Why study the mouse genome?

“Making this wealth of data freely available to the research community is a significant milestone,” said David A. Schwartz. M.D., director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the research. “Each mouse strain is genetically unique. Now that we know the DNA variations for these mouse strains, we can compare the genetic makeup of one strain that acquires a certain disease to another strain that does not get the same disease. In this way researchers gain insight into the same processes that may cause one human to get a disease while another human in the same environment remains disease-free.”

When you use reason to solve problems you discover the secrets of the universe and solve problems facing man. This approach to life necessarily leads to cooperation among men. When you use force to solve problems and abandon reason you discover only death and destruction. This approach to life necessarily leads to antagonism among men.

This is the choice facing humanity today: the choice between the scientist and the terrorist-between good and evil. If we choose the scientist then we have to decide to do what it takes to rid ourselves of the terrorist scourge that has afflicted us for far too long.